Dragon Over Washington (The Third War Of The Bir Nibaru Gods) (21 page)

***

Corporal Reimer was looking at the trees, his eyes half closed. It was so easy to rest his head and -

“Alpha Bravo One, this is Alpha One. Status report!” Montoya’s voice sounded loud and harsh in the idyllic sparse forest. Reimer clicked his mike once.

“Any targets?” Montoya demanded. Reimer clicked his mike twice.

“Missing me already?” Montoya asked. Reimer clicked his mike three times. It was their agreed sign for “fuck you.”

“Tsk, tsk, tsk. No juicy farm girls for white-assed corporals today,” Montoya said, sharing a grin with Reimer, though they were several hundred yards apart.

“All alpha units, this is Alpha. Stay sharp. Bogey ETA is now”,” Anderson’s voice sounded terse. Montoya fell silent and Reimer actually scanned the view a few times, seeing nothing.

Reimer gradually became aware of something annoying on his cheek. He tried to twitch, contorting his face. The thing disappeared, but returned a moment later, making Reimer gnash his teeth, but he remained motionless, hoping the bug would go away. Then it started to move, making him shiver. He sighed, and slowly moved his hand towards his face. He touched something long and wet. He traced it with his finger, his eyes widening. His body twitched, uncontrollably. Whatever it was came away and he caught a glimpse of it. It looked like a snake’s forked tongue, flicking in the air.

Reimer froze. Something had just registered. He could hear breathing: air being sucked into huge lungs. The corporal started to rise up from his position, but froze again. Into his view came a huge maw with massive reptilian jaws more than three feet long, gaping open and revealing dagger-like teeth. Reimer caught his breath. He stared at the nostrils dilating as air was sucked in. Plate-sized scales changed color from brown to black and then to dark green. A wisp of smoke came from within the opened jaws. Reimer noticed leaves on the earth beginning to smolder, dry and curl, trails of smoke rising from them.

“Alpha Bravo One, this is Alpha One. Report.” Montoya’s voice thundered out of the helmet’s earphones. Reimer didn’t dare move a muscle. The jaws closed for a moment, then started to open again as they approached Reimer.

“Alpha Bravo One, respond!” Reimer felt a lump in his throat, a lump he didn’t dare swallow.

“Alpha Bravo One, damn it, wake up!” Montoya yelled. Reimer could not take his eyes off the jaws. The thing moved into his field of vision, revealing a huge triangular head.

“Reimer, if you have fallen asleep, God help me, I’ll fry your stupid white ass -” Montoya’s voice was cut off as Reimer slowly moved his hand and shut off the earphones. He felt his heart pounding as an eye came into view, a vertical black pupil floating in a green sea of hunger. The eye regarded him, unblinking. It was a cold, reptilian gaze and Reimer felt cold sweat forming on his back. The tongue flicked out once again, moving over Reimer’s face.

Suddenly, the creature lifted his head and disappeared from Reimer’s view. There was a noise of something hard slithering over the earth, pushing away branches and leaves.

Reimer didn’t move. Minutes passed and he remained frozen. A bird landed above him, chirping happily. Reimer started to shake. He finally collapsed, curling up and trembling uncontrollably.

***

“Alpha, this is Alpha One. I cannot raise Alpha Bravo One. Over.” Montoya’s voice sounded in Captain Anderson’s helmet earphones. He motioned the soldier near him to hand him the satellite phone handset.

“Raptor, this is Alpha. Come in,” Anderson said.

“Go ahead, Alpha.”

“Do you have any info on the target?” Anderson asked.

“Negative, Alpha. We lost it for good. We can’t reacquire.”

“Roger.” Anderson put the handset down and touched his helmet microphone.

“Alpha Three, this is Alpha,” Anderson called softly.

“Alpha, this is Alpha Three. Over.”

“Alpha Three, move out to Alpha One. Pick up Montoya and check Alpha Bravo One,” Anderson said. Alpha Three was one of the teams inside a Hummer stationed behind the main farm building.

“Call them off. I warned you against using forward observers. The mission comes first. I won’t have our target alarmed by your vehicle. Call them off now or I will.” The agent looked at him calmly, his white teeth gleaming in the dark. Anderson scowled and thumbed the switch on his helmet mike.

“Alpha Three, abort,” Anderson said. He could hear the sound of the Hummer’s engine revving up. The cattle on the fields snorted, angry at the disturbance, several cows shaking their heads irritably.

“Say again, Alpha.”

“Alpha Three, abort,” Anderson snarled.

“Copy that, Alpha.” The engine cut off. The cattle calmed down, the few irritated cows relaxing. Anderson pulled down his AN/PVS-7 night vision goggles. They were fixed to his helmet and all he needed was to thumb a switch to get them operating. The contraption clicked into place in front of his eyes, a lone telescope staring forward. It was a passive system, unlike the surveillance camera the NSA agents used, taking in ambient light, mostly starlight, intensifying it, and enabling its user to see a bright, albeit green, world.

Anderson scanned the terrain ahead, searching for the tree under which Montoya had hid his FO. He couldn’t see anything out of the ordinary, nothing that didn’t belong on a farm or a forest. The night sky was bright green, with the auto gain control of the night vision goggles keeping it from becoming too luminous in Anderson’s field of view. He could see the black boxy silhouette of the Hummer hidden behind Montoya’s position. He saw the soldiers' dark forms lying down on the brighter and more reflective soil.

“Alpha One, this is Alpha. Over.”

“Alpha, Alpha One. Over,” Montoya said.

“Anything from Alpha Bravo One?” Anderson asked.

“Negative. Fucking nothing,” Montoya said.

“Roger,” Anderson said.

“Sir, permission to -” Montoya began.

“Denied. Alpha, out,” Anderson said. Anderson kept looking into the night. He scanned the fenced farmland ahead. The dairy buildings to the left were deserted. The cows, a few bulls among them, moved slowly, mostly staying in several groups of cattle, looking around with their big, soft eyes. Anderson adjusted the objective lens, focusing on the fence. The fence was made of steel, the farmer having made the assumption that a costlier fence would be more cost effective in the long run.

“Do you see anything?” Anderson heard Agent Mathew ask the civilian.

“Yeah, sure man. I see lots of things. Look at this farm. There’s no regard to crop rotation or natural fertilizer. And look at those cows! Did you know cows are the number one reason for deforestation? They destroy pastures and produce methane that contributes to global warming. Think of Mother Earth, man. Live ecologically,” Benson said, sucking on his long grass blade.

“The creatures, Benson. Do you see any of the creatures?” Mathew’s narrowed eyes tried to bore into Benson’s, but Benson’s heavy-rimmed glasses seemed impervious.

Benson adjusted his glasses and peered at the weapons stacked all around him on the roof, the ammunition crates stacked one on the other, and the targeting cameras.

“And what’s with these weapons, man? Going to start World War Three? It’s like a bad trip, man!”

“Quiet!” Mathew snapped irritably. Benson was giving away their position.

“You need to learn to hear your inner voice, man.” Benson said and finally shut up.

Anderson looked at the small man as he tried to stand up on the roof, but the NSA agents restrained him. Benson’s gaze was riveted, staring northward. Anderson moved his head slowly, trying to see into the trees that lined the hills to the north. Nothing. He then kept his head still, trying to see if he could spot a movement that he might have otherwise missed because of his own movement. Nothing seemed to be out there. Then, all of a sudden, something moved. He quickly turned the objective lens counterclockwise and focused. There was movement of something slithering and coming closer. Anderson blinked and tried to focus on it. It was as if a ripple passed over the earth, a disturbance that approached the farm’s fence.

Something was sliding over the ground, something that Anderson couldn’t see, though it left a deep undulating track in the ground behind it. A tree in the path of the disturbance suddenly trembled as if something heavy rubbed against it. Anderson opened his mouth to sound the alarm. The invisible disturbance reached the fence and the fence moved, the thick steel beams imbedded into the ground shuddering. Something was brushing against the fence, something massive. Yet Anderson could see nothing through his night vision goggles except the bright green earth and the darker vegetation beyond. The fence started to bend, the steel beams giving way. A breach formed, its edges moving apart as something invisible pushed itself into the farm’s grounds.

Anderson couldn’t breathe. He tracked the approach of the thing, whatever it was. The undulating path over the land headed straight towards the largest group of cows, moving slowly, inhumanely slowly. Anderson started. A lone cow mooed in distress. The undulating motion stopped. Anderson jumped again. A pair of luminous eyes, bright green reflections in his PVS-7 scope, blinked once and then disappeared.

“All alpha units. Bogey four hundred yards north of Alpha,” Anderson croaked.

“Alpha, where’s that?”

“I don’t have anything!”

“You sure?”

“Alpha, say again.” Anderson didn’t respond. His eyes remained glued to his night vision goggles. Slowly something swam into view, gradually becoming visible. It was a snake-like thing, more massive and bulkier than any creature Anderson had ever seen or heard about, more than thirty feet from snout to tail. It slithered slowly across the earth, snake-like, belly rubbing against the ground. The cows bellowed in fright and ran off as fast as they could. A bull stayed behind, trembling slightly. Anderson could see the hot breath streaming away from the bull’s mouth as it stayed in its place, even as the monster approached. The creature’s huge, overlapping scales were changing color from black to green, and then finally assuming a pale orange shade.

“What the fuck!”

“Look at that mother!”

“Get a load of that!”

“Soldiers, cut the crap. Get off the horn,” Agent Mathew said shortly.

“Base. Confirmed contact. Phase one commencing. Phase two ready.” Anderson heard Agent Mathew’s voice near him. He blinked in confusion. The monster was now somehow growing. The monster didn’t grow, it was rising up on its legs, towering up, like a cobra rearing up before attacking, only a hundred times bigger.

“Holy -” the awestruck voice echoed in Anderson’s earphones. It was his own. A triangle-shaped head, horned and spiked, rose up even higher on a long neck. Long jaws moved fractionally as the eyes stared at the frozen bull. The monster’s four clawed legs dug in to the ground, while its long, spiked, whip-like tail moved continuously. A forked tongue darted out, tasting the air. Anderson tore the night vision goggles off his head. He watched the monster rearing up before the dazed bull. A pitiful bleat from the bull made Anderson shake himself.

“Move, damn it! Move!”

“That’s mother nature, man!” Benson said.

“The bull is paralyzed,” someone said. The motionless bull did not even paw the ground or snort; it just stood there. Anderson looked back at the reptilian monster. The huge triangular- shaped head was steady, the faintly luminous green eyes fixed on the bull. Its jaws opened, two pairs of huge fangs unfolded themselves, rotating and moving forward. The fangs, the pair on the upper jaw slightly longer than the pair on the lower jaw, were easily visible even in the murky darkness of the night. The jaws opened further, the triangle-shaped head tensing. Then, faster than Anderson could follow, the monster flashed forward, reaching the bull in the blink of an eye. It coiled around the herbivore, which was like a rabbit caught in the unforgiving grasp of a python. Dust and sand flew up in every direction as the beasts struggled, but the bull’s hooves slid on iron-hard scales, and its feeble struggle was short-lived. Thick, black smoke rose off the bull as if it were being roasted alive.

“Base. Phase one complete. We’ve got a video. Link is good. Moving to phase two.” Anderson heard Agent Mathew speaking softly into his satellite phone. Anderson’s eyes were glued to the scene in front of him. The monster now coiled around its limp prey, its tail and head staying on top of the thickly scaled and coiled body. With a yawn, the jaws opened up further, more than Anderson thought any living being could. The limp bull, half roasted, was being swallowed whole. The huge triangular head was moving, swallowing the bull’s body as it advanced, pushing it down the monster’s armored throat.

In a very short time, all that remained of the one-ton bull was a noticeable bulge in the creature’s body that moved downward. The monster belched, a cloud of black smoke issuing from its mouth and nostrils. It remained coiled, resting. The muscles on the triangular-shaped head moved as the jaws closed, while the great fangs rotated into their stowed positions. Its scales changed color to a darker shade of orange.

Anderson felt sick. The farmland was completely silent. Not a single living being dared make a sound. The faint rustling sound made by the iron-hard scales moving against each other was the only thing heard. Something made Anderson’s gaze snap over to the NSA agent’s position on the roof, near his own.